Machine for simultaneous treatment of the inside and outside surfaces of metal tubes



June 17, 1958 P. VON ARX 2,838,778

MACHINE FOR SIMULTANEOUS TREATMENT OF THE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE SURFACES OF METAL TUBES Filed Sept. 27, 1954 s Sheets-Sheet 1 INVEN TOR PAUL VON ARX June 17, 1958 VON ARX 2,838,778

MACHINE FOR SIMULTANEOUS TREATMENT OF THE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE SURFACES OF METAL TUBES Filed Sept. 27, 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VENTOR PA UL VON ARX WM 7 A1135.

P. VON ARX 2,838,778 MACHINE FOR SIMULTANEOUS TREATMENT OF THE INSIDE June 17, 1958 AND OUTSIDE SURFACES OF METAL TUBES 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Sept. 2'7, 1954 INVENTOR PAUL VON ARX United I States Patent MACHINE FOR SIMULTANEOUS TREATMENT THE INSIDE AND ,OUTSIDE SURFACES OF METAL TUBES Paul von Arx, Sissach, Switzerland, assignor to P. von

Arx & Co. A. G., Sissach, Switzerland, a Swiss com- Application September 27, 1954-, Serial No. 458,613

Claims priority, application Switzerland September 30, 1953 11 Claims. (Cl. 15-104.03)

My present invention relates to a machine for the simultaneous treatment of the inside and outside surfaces of metallic 'tubes, the term treatment including the operations of derusting, descaling, deslagging and, if desired, of metallizing, lacquering and coating with bituminous materials.

Machines are known for carrying out these operations of treatments. All of these known-machines, however, are adapted only for the outside or the inside treatment of a metal tube, so that when the tube has to be treated on'the insideas Well as on the outside, first one and then the other machine has to be used, both of these machines for purposes of their displacement being supported on the tube to be treated.

The machine disclosed by my present invention represents a technical advance in so far as it permits simultaneous treatment of both the inside and outside surfaces of the tube more satisfactorily than has been possible with the machines known so far, since neither the outside nor the inside treatment units are supported on the tube itself, and the latter moreover is rotated about its own axis.

The machine disclosed by my present invention comprises generally an outside-treating unit, an inside-treating unit and a tube-supporting unit. The first unit includes a movable supporting element on which are provided rotatable power-driven outside-treating means. The second unit includes a movable support for a drive shaft on the end portion of which are provided rotary inside-treating means driven by said shaft. The third unit comprises two tube-end supports provided with rollers on which is mounted the tube to be treated.

One form of the invention is shown in the drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is an end view of the machine, showing the outsidetreating unit, the inside-treating unit and the tubesupporting unit, V

Fig. 2 is a side view of Fig. l with broken-out portions and omitting the support associated with the insidetreating unit, Y

Fig. 3 is a side view of the support associated with the inside treating unit,

Fig. 4 shows, in a smaller scale, a modification of the working head ofthe inside-treating unit, and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a driving arrangement for thebrushes of the inside-treating unit.

The machine shown in Figs. 1 to 3 serves for simultaneously treatingthe inside and outside surfaces of a horizontally disposed metallic tube 1 by means of an outsidetreating unit and an inside-treating unit. The outsidetreating unit' comprises a carriage 3 disposed on two rails 2 and including two curved interbraced supporting frames 4 secured to a truck 3a. On said frames are arranged tools for treating the exterior surface of tube 1, and each tool comprises two bell cranks 5 pivoted to the frames 4. Between the ends of the two legs 5a of each bell-crank pair is disposed a cylindrical steel brush 6 which is rotated by an electric motor 7 mounted on the same bellcrank legs. For the purpose of treating the outside tube surface, the steel brushes 6 or, respectively, supporting legs 50 associated therewith have to be pressed against the tube. This is done by means of two control cables 8a and 8b which in Figs. 1 and 2 are indicated by dashand-dot lines. One end of cable 8a through a tension spring 10 is connected to the corresponding legs 5b of the bell cranks 5, and said cable is trained over guide rollers 9a to 9c which are provided on the outside of the frames 4, and the other end of said cable may be wound on a reel which is rotatable by means of a handwheel 13. Cable 8b also is secured by means of a spring 10 to leg 5b of the opposite bell-crank 5, is trained over a roller 9d and thence over roller 9c on to the reel of cable 8a. By

. turning handwheel 13, the two cables 8a and 8b thus are rails 2. On said frame is disposed a pedestal 15 the elevation of which is adjustable by means of a vertical screw spindle-16. The latter is rotatable by means of a handwheel 17 via a worm gear 18 and a worm wheel 18a. On pedestal 15 is mounted a hollow shaft 19 in which is disposed a drive shaft 20 driven by an electric motor 21 mounted on pedestal 15. On the frontrnost end portion of shaft 19.is mounted a transom 20a provided with a boss. To the ends of transom 20a are pivoted bell-cranks 22 on each'of which is disposed a cylindrical sheel brush 23, as in the case of the bell-cranks of the outside-treating unit. Each brush is engaged by a helical spring 22a one end of which is secured to transom 20a and the other to bell-crank 22, so as to be resiliently engageable with' the inside wall of the tube. Said steel brushes may be driven from shaft 20 by means of a drive arrangement as shown in Fig. 5. A pulley 40 is fixed to drive shaft 20, and on the end of the transom 20a pulleys 41 and 42 are loosely mounted on a shaft 43 which constitutes the pivot for bell crank 22. Brush 23 has a pulley 44 attached thereto. 'Drive belt 45 passes around pulley 40 and pulley 44, and one side passes, over pulley 41 and the other side over pulley 42 in the direction indicated by the arrows. Drive belt 45 may be replaced by any equivalent driving means and the pulleys modified accordingly.

Immediately to the rear of transom 20a, a cross-shaped guiding element 24 is mounted on hollow shaft 19, and radial side arms of said element are telescopable so that rollers mounted on the ends thereof are engageable with the interior wall of tube 1. Thereby the hollow shaft 19 is guided near its forward end when treating the tube 1. The two units described above, which are movable on the rails 2, are interconnected by means of a coupling rod 25 and, further, by means of two lateral cables 26a which at the ends of the rails 2 are trained over rollers 26 (Figf 3). One of the latter is mounted on a shaft which is rotatable by hand or, if desired, by motor means in order to simultaneously move the two carriages 3 and 14 with the inside and the outside-treating units respectively. It will be noted that carriage 14 lags with respect to carriage 3 so that the'outside-treating tools and the inside-treating tools are disposed in the same cross-plane in order that they will arrive at one tube end simultaneously on termination of the treating operation which starts at the other tube end.

The tube is accommodated in horizontal position on a supporting unit which comprises two tube-end supports. The latter comprise a cross-pedestal 28 on which are movably mounted two columns 29 and on which an electric motor 3-0 is mounted between said columns 29. In crosspedestal 28 are mounted two screw-spindles 31 and 32 of which one is left-handed and the other right-handed. Said two spindles are interconnected by a helical gear 33 which is engaged by another helical gear (not shown) mounted on a control shaft 33a which is disposed at right angles to the axis of the spindles. On each of the latter is provided a nut which through a slot in pedestal 28 is connected to the respective column 29. By turning shaft 33 by means of a crank engageable with the square endportion 33a thereof, the two columns 29 may be moved towards or away from each other. On those columns 29 longitudinal shafts 34 are rotatably mounted on which are secured rollers 34a in vicinity of said columns. The tube to be treated bears on said rollers 34a which are disposed in pairs on the two shafts 34. The latter are rotated at one end by the motor 30 of the respective support (the other support having no motor) so that the rollers 34a are rotated, with the result that tube 1 itself also is rotated about its own axis.

For the purpose of cleaning the tube 1, the brushes 6 and 23 are rotated by switching on the respective motors, and moved from one end of the rotating tube 1 to the other by moving the carriages 3 and 14 on the rails 2 so that the tube is cleaned simultaneously both on the outside and inside.

As is evident from the foregoing description, carriage 3 forms a movable support for the outside-treating means. Said support, however, could be a truck frame suspended from a horizontal track and running on rollers thereon.

Instead of steel brushes, treating means of any other kind could be provided.

The brushes 6 could be, for example, paint brushes adapted to apply a coat of paint after the tube has been cleaned. In such case, a can of paint 40 would be provided in suitable manner on both the inside and outside of the tube, as schematically indicated in dash-and-dot lines in Fig. 1, and the paint from these two cans could flow over the inside and outside surfaces of the tube and be spread thereovcr by the rotating brushes.

in Pig. 4 there is further shown, by way of example, an inside-.rcating unit comprising two carrier discs 36 mounted on the end-portion of drive shaft 20, and six shafts 37 rotatably mounted on the circumference of said discs project between the latter. On said shafts 37 are loosely mounted three guide rollers 38 and three stacks of square discs 39 disposed between said rollers. When shaft rotates, said discs 39 through their corner-portions act on the inside surface of the tube 1 so as to remove rust, scale and like impurities by hammer action.

I claim:

1. A machine for simultaneously treating both the inside and the outside surfaces of metal tubes comprising an outside-treating unit comprising a supporting element and rotatablepower driven outside treating means on said element, an inside-treating unit comprising a supporting frame, a drive shaft ad means to drive said shaft mounted thereon and rotatable inside treating means driven by said shaft at the end portion of said shaft remote from said supporting frame, a supporting unit for accommodating the tube to be treated in a horizontal position comprising two tube end supports with rollers mounted thereon for supporting the tube to be treated and means for rotating said rollers to rotate said tube about its own axis, means on which said outside-treating unit and said inside-treating unit are movably mounted in spaced relationship for movement over said supporting units along said tube, and means connecting said units in spaced relation.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 in which the supporting frame for said inside-treating unit is spaced from said outside-treating unit a distance equal to the length of said drive shaft on said supporting frame and the said drive shaft projecting from said supporting frame toward said outside-treating unit, whereby said treating means of the inside-treating unit and the outside-treating unit are opposed to each other on the inside and the outside of said tube.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said supporting element in said outside-treating unit comprises a truck movably mounted on said means on which said units are mounted, and two curved interbraced supporting frames on said truck with the tube treating means for the outside of the tube mounted thereon.

4. A machine as claimed in claim 3 in which the outside-treating means comprise at least one bell-crank pivoted to said curved frames, tube treating means for treating the outside of the tube rotatably mounted on the end of one leg of said bell crank, a tension spring secured to the other leg of said bell-crank, and a reelable tension cable means secured to said spring, whereby said tube treating means on said bell crank is resiliently engageable with the outside surface of the tube.

5. A machine as claimed in claim 4 and means to rotate said tube treating means on said bell crank comprising an electric motor mounted on said bell-crank and connected to said treating means. I

6. A machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said inside treating unit further comprises a hollow shaft around the drive shaft of the inside-treating unit and a transom mounted on the end thereof with the means for treating the inside of the tube thereon.

7. A machine as claimed in claim 6 in which the inside treating unit further comprises a pedestal on the supporting frame on which pedestal the hollow shaft is mounted, and a spindle drive means on said supporting frame for moving said pedestal in elevation, and the means for driving said drive shaft comprise an electric motor on said frame connected to said drive shaft within said hollow shaft.

8. A machine as claimed in claim 6 in which said inside treating means comprise at least one spring biased bell-crank pivoted to said transom and means for treating the inside of the tube rotatably mounted on the end of one of the legs of said spring biased bell-crank.

9. A machine as claimed in claim 7 in which said inside treating unit further comprises a guiding element having radially extending telescoping arms mounted on said hollow shaft between said transom and said pedestal.

10. A machine as claimed in claim 1 in which each of the tube end supports comprises two columns, a crosspedestal on which said columns are movably mounted for spacing adjustment transversely of the tube, a rotary shaft mounted between said columns on each side of the tube, said shafts having said rollers thereon on which the tube to be treated is rested.

11. A machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said means for rotating said rollers comprises an electric motor mounted on one of said tube end supports.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 983,980 Clow Feb. 14, 1911 1,082,544 Matheus Dec. 30, 1913 1,692,028 Elliott Nov. 20, 1928 1,927,391 Coberly et al Sept. 19, 1933 2,152,036 Froh Mar. 28, 1939 2,353,125 Carpmail July 11, 1944 

